Guns N’ Roses’ Slash Had Surprising Reaction To Being Told To Play Chinese Democracy

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan discussed how he and Slash reacted to having to play Chinese Democracy songs in a new interview with Chris Jericho.

“It’s great. Axl, he put a lot into that record.”

“I think Slash and I were challenged with a thing, like, ‘How do we make these kinda ours now?’ Cause we’re gonna play these; we’re gonna take ownership of these.”

“And we went in and learned them and started playing them with [drummer] Frank [Ferrer] and then [guitarist] Rich [Fortus]. Let’s tear these songs down and really know them and then build it up from there.”

Duff said the beginning of the bass line to “Sweet Child O’ Mine” is one of the toughest parts for him to play.

“You can’t fuck that up. Everybody there is listening at that point. You gotta be on.”

He also discussed live performances.

“We wear in-ears, right? So most of the time [Axl] is telling amazing jokes. He crushes everybody. You know, I fancy myself a humorist, a jokester, but he crushes me.”